The Israeli Woman

First Assignment

This is the first assignment. It is due on May 21st. Please upload it to the course’s website. The assignment should not exceed two pages.

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1981) was a French writer, philosopher, political activist—and feminist. Her novels and essays had a profound influence on the awareness of women both to themselves and to how society treats them. She contributed to the development of a new generation of women who refuse to accept male dominance and want to fulfill their personal and professional ambitions. She was the life-long partner and lover of Jean-Paul Sartre, but refused to marry him; she had a negative view of marriage and felt it doesn’t agree with her sense of freedom.
Her book The Second Sex (1949) is considered a major feminist work, discussing fundamental issues: feminine myths, feminine stereotypes, the place of women in society, and various ways to improve the lives of women.
In the introduction, she deals with an issue that only rarely emerges in feminist literature: happiness. What makes a woman happy? Are only liberated women happy? It may appear as a simple question, but it is a very complex, intricate matter. It is not easy to determine what makes us happy. In this chapter, she writes:

“We do not confuse the idea of private interest with that of happiness, although that is another common point of view. Are not women of the harem more happy than women voters? Is not the housekeeper happier than the working woman? It is not too clear just what the word happy really means and still less what true values it may mask. There is no possibility of measuring the happiness of others, and it is always easy to describe as happy the situation in which one wishes to place them”.
(Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, London: Vintage, 1997, p. 28).

Questions:
1. Read the quotation very carefully and describe the argument in your own words. Be as accurate as possible; it is a complex argument. Is happiness a fulfillment of interests, or is it something else? Is the working woman necessarily happier than the housewife (housekeeper)? Can we measure happiness? Do we perceive happiness as the fulfillment of our hopes?

2. Choose a woman protagonist we discussed in class. Examine her in light of this argument: is she happy or miserable? What would make her happy? Is Zionism making her life happy, sad, or both? Is coping with the difficulties in the new land generating joy? Try to put yourself in her place, considering her life circumstances, worldview, and values—no need to find a protagonist that agrees with the argument. You can discuss a protagonist you think refutes this view.

Essay Mill